Some positives for Houston

Dundee United manager Peter Houston described it a "stepping stone" as his side returned to action with a 1-1 draw against Aberdeen at Tannadice.

Home midfielder John Rankin opened the scoring midway through the first-half before Niall McGinn equalised for the Dons shortly after the interval.

The result at least witnessed the hosts picking up only their third point in six games following a dismal run of form of late.

"I've got lots of positives compared to a couple of weeks ago at Inverness," Houston told BBC Scotland. "It's a stepping stone for us at United to make sure we're dogged and hard to beat and that's what we were.

"I thought we had the better of the first half, Aberdeen looked dangerous in the second half," he added. "But the best two chances of the second half came to us - Johnny Russell's strike that Jamie Langfield saved, and then how Keith Watson's was stopped on the line, I will never know."